We developed a biomimetic approach, based on direct incubation with proteolytic enzymes, to measure bioavailable amino acids in sediments. The kinetics of release of monomers and oligopeptides, which are amenable to absorption by cells, is measured as either individual or total amino acids. Microbial proteases incubated with fresh sediments yield amino acids at a similar rate as gut juices from a deposit-feeding holothuroid.Amino acid release from fresh sediment was dominated by a slow hydrolysis step from a refractory substrate, which can be described with a first-order rate law. Typical rate constants for release were in the range 0.15-0.52 h-l, consistent with gut residence times of deposit feeders.